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| don't be daft - of COURSE these are not mine! |
Ah - next year....the optimism and potentiality of next year is what keeps gardeners going. Where you can draw a line under all the failures of this year and plan ahead for a Bright New Tomorrow.
Next year....
I WILL remember to stake up the poppies before they get too tall.
I WILL water the tomatoes EVERY day whether they need it or not.
I WILL remember to plant out all my little seedlings and not leave them to perish, utterly forgotten, in the cold frame.
I WILL plant a bed for cutting flowers.
I WILL plant lots of vegetables.
I WILL harvest said vegetables and not leave them to rot in the ground.
I WILL keep my garden notebook up to date and not leave it in the shed for snails to eat like I did this year.
Next year I will.....
1 - Figure out a way to stop the neighbours cats from shitting in my greenhouse and polytunnel as soon as my back is turned. Let me clarify that. Let me find a way to stop them WITHOUT resorting to using poison or the air rifle. Believe me, you only need to pick ONE strawberry with a splatter of cat shit on it and poison seems like a perfectly reasonable option.
2 - I WILL have a soft fruit harvest next year. I will work out how those bloody birds and mice are stripping my glossy-berried redcurrants bare in the 24 hour window between me noticing that they are ripe and coming out with a bowl to pick them. I got NOTHING this year.
I had to harvest my gooseberries when they were as hard as Katie Price's tits - but they made lovely jam. The gooseberries that is.
3 I have only one planting combination in my mind that I MUST get organised for next year - some Crocosmia (Montbretia) called Lucifer (fiery red flowers and deep green foliage) and Agapanthus bulbs - big, blowsy, purple/blue flowers that are going to look GREAT with Lucifer. And yes, they flower at the same time!
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| images shamelessly nicked from gardenersworld.com |
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| cerigtostigma willmttanium - suggested by viv |
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| Cerinthe purpurescens - as suggested by Viv |
Our garden path is paved with good intentions, and a fair amount of deer shit. They just love to eat whatever we produce, except onions. Fencing off the vegetable garden is the only answer, or going postal one morning. We might have some Venison for sale soon.
ReplyDeleteThis post makes me sad that we don't really have a garden. Also, you've seen what the one we occasionally use looks like, so i think I definitely have to be better at it!
ReplyDeleteI have lots of good intentions myself for my garden and it all goes down the drain very fast! you are not alone!
ReplyDeleteWe are plagued by fox shit (which I used to blame on the local cats). We contemplated motion sensor activated miniature machine gun emplacements (or possibly water cannon, since the former would probably bring us to the attentions of the rozzers :D
ReplyDeleteI have decided that wildlife is all very well, as long as it's eating or crapping on someone else's garden!
Please choose a nice dark agapanthus and not an anaemic one; see here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.somethingforthegarden.co.uk/acatalog/Agapanthus.html
Crocosmia 'Lucifer' you can get anywhere :-)
Check out some heleniums, ceratostigma wilmottianum and cerinthe to fit in with your planned colors :-) ...
Dear Ali, I'm totally with you!! i start with good intentions then it all goes... hmmm.
ReplyDeleteCrocosmia Lucifer are one of my favourites. I have some and they come back year after year. Vivanne's right the bright orange looks wonderful with the dark/bright purple Agapanthus. I love those colours together.
My friend has the same problem with cats.. He got some sort of gadget that emits a noise not audible to humans but cats hate it. I'll try and find out what it's called.
I've had computer problems today. Most frustrating but The Actor (after a lot of me getting in a huff) has done something to my laptop so it is finally working at the right speed...) I want to answer your email properly! Love C xxx
Aha! Good to see that I am not the only one harbouring thoughts about wildlife that would make David Attenborough blanche with fear!
ReplyDeleteChristina - will check out that noise thing for the cats because they are making a DREADFUL mess in there! Looking forward to the e-mail ;-)
Viv - glad to have you back in the land of the living? How'd it go? Send me an ee! Very partial indeed to cerinthe purpurescens - not tried the cerigtostigma or heleniums. Will put up a couple of pix now in m'blog so that other peeps can see them
Legend - deer shit is a problem on the island too - not as much as deer eating people's roses is though!
LM - get a window box or growbags or something! You're so good at looking after things, you're BOUND to be good at the ol' gardening!
Ania - I share your dark thoughts about wildlife.....
Mystica - we'll both have to try a bit better for next year!
The cat thing grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
ReplyDeleteThere's a farm cat turned up here recently and we cant get rid of it as the customers think its ours and are FEEDING IT IN THE GARDEN.Roll on winter when its too cold for them to sit out there.Our back garden is a wilderness-I dug up the lawn at the beginning of the summer intending to do a veg patch then it got too busy to finish.Maybe some flora is a much better idea.
PS love the way you incorporated SS11 in there!
One of my girlfriend's has a garden right in the middle of Houston. It is a sacred place to her. It is her therapy from the ordinary. And she shares her bounty, mostly various tomatoes. I completely understand this. I do the same with flowers. Your blog is wonderful. Thank you so much. xx's
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